We have all experienced a situation in which an important report remains buried on your desktop while you searched for video content on YouTube. The deadline is approaching and suddenly organizing your sock drawer is an “all of a sudden” task that cannot wait. Procrastination is a common experience for all humans. Yet when procrastination becomes your pattern and it hinders your productivity, wellness, and self-esteem it is time for action.
This article touches on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy procrastination and how CBT can provide powerful, evidence-based approaches to turn procrastination into productive behaviours. The difference here is that CBT is not a quick fix that transforms you overnight from procrastinator to productive. CBT will provide you sustainable strategies and tools to help you address the underlying motivations for why you procrastinate.
Understanding Procrastination: More Than Poor Time Management
Procrastination is not simply poor time management and laziness. Procrastination is “the act of voluntarily delaying an intended course of action, despite expecting negative consequences” – this complex psychological behaviour cannot be reduced to poor time management alone as it is imbedded in emotion, cognitive and learnt behaviours.
Many people firmly believe procrastination is caused by poor will power or organisation, yet the research is clear that procrastination is typically an emotional coping strategy, meaning it is a way to avoid uncomfortable emotional responses to particular tasks for a time.
The Procrastination Cycle
Basically, the procrastination cycle runs like this: 
The cycle is hard to escape from because we feel the immediate relief when we avoid the task, while the consequences are felt later.
The Psychology Behind Procrastination
Understanding why we procrastinate is crucial for applying CBT principles to beat procrastination and overcome it. CBT identifies several key psychological factors that contribute to procrastination:
Common Psychological Drivers of Procrastination
Research has identified different procrastination patterns or “types” (yes, there are procrastination types). Knowing what type of procrastination applies to you can help to focus on specific CBT interventions:
– The Perfectionist: Cannot start due to unrealistic standards
– The Dreamer: Plans extensively but struggles to translate to practical action
– The Worrier: Avoiding the task because of anxiety and its worst-case scenarios
– The Defier: Procrastinates as an act of rebellion or resistance
– The Crisis-Maker: Thrives on implementation when the pressure is zero hour
– The Overdoer: Takes on too much, gets overwhelmed, and then it is easier to avoid
How does CBT help with procrastination?
“Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) understands procrastination in relation to the CBT triangle.”
The relationship that we have between our thoughts, feelings, and behaviours.
CBT understands procrastination as:
– Negative automatic thoughts: Automatic thoughts that “pop” into our head – which we often are not aware of – which triggers our avoidance behaviour.
– Cognitive distortions: Errors in thinking that give us a different view of the reality of tasks.
– Behaviour patterns: Avoidance behaviours that reinforce procrastination as our response.
CBT provides multiple ways to break procrastination by intervening at different angles of the triangle.
Powerful CBT Strategies to Overcome Procrastination
1. Identifying and Challenging Negative Thoughts
The first step in CBT to address procrastination involves becoming aware of the negative thoughts that arise when facing a task. Consider this thought-challenging exercise:
Implementation Tip💡: Keep a thought diary for a week. Whenever you catch yourself procrastinating, write down the thoughts that pop into your mind. Then, look for patterns and practice reframing these thoughts with more balanced possibilities.
2. Setting SMART Goals and Breaking Down Tasks
When you’re faced with large, vague tasks, procrastination can kick in. Cognitive-behaviour therapy approaches talk about setting goals and breaking down big tasks into smaller parts that are more manageable.
Using the SMART Goal framework:
Specific: Be clear and exact as to what you are trying to achieve
Measurable: Indicate how you will measure progress
Achievable: Is it realistic and attainable?
Relevant: Make sure it fits into your larger goals
Time-bound: Create a defined deadline or time frame
Task breakdown example: Instead of “Write research paper,” you could break it down into:
Implementation Tip💡: Utilize a project management tool or basic checklist to track the progress of broken-down tasks. Checking items off provides a sense of accomplishment and good momentum.
3. Behavioral Activation
Behavioural activation is about taking action regardless of how you feel. This strategy acknowledges that feelings often follow behavior, rather than coming before it.
The Behavioral Activation Process:
Action Tips:
- Begin with a 5-minute commitment to the activity
- Try to put scheduled times on activities instead of waiting for inspiration
- Create a balance between required activities and pleasurable activities
- Track levels of activities, including mood
4. The Pomodoro Technique
The Pomodoro Technique is a method used for time management that breaks up work into intervals (most commonly 25 min), separated by short breaks. It also compares quite well to principles of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) as it breaks down one’s tasks into less intimidating chunks and sets time to do it in a somewhat formal way.
Basic Pomodoro Process:
- Choose a task
- Set a timer for 25 minutes
- Work on the task until the timer rings
- Take a short 5-minute break
- After four pomodoros take a long break (15-30 minutes)
Implementation Tip💡: If the thought of 25 minutes sounds overwhelming, you can experiment with shorter intervals (even 10-15 minutes). The key is creating forward momentum with a brief period of focused work.
5. Structured Problem-Solving
Sometimes, procrastination results from the need to face problems that feel complex and overwhelming and structured problem solving gives you a pathway to take action.
Structured Problem-Solving Steps:
- Clearly define the problem
- In a brainstorming mode, list all potential solutions (without judging them)
- List the pros and cons of each potential solution
- Select the best potential solution
- Create an implementation plan for the solution you selected
- Act on the plan
- Reflect on the results and what adjustments need to be made
Implementation Tip: Consider rating the feasibility and potential effectiveness of each of your solutions on a scale of 1-10. Tackle the proposals that receive strong scores for both feasibility and potential effectiveness.
6. Self-Monitoring and Awareness
It is important for effective interventions to understand your own procrastination pattern, so you can take proactive steps towards change.
Self-monitoring is about tracking yourself: what you are doing (behaviours), what you are thinking (thoughts), and what you are feeling (emotions) with regard to potential procrastination behaviour.
Self-Monitoring Template:
Review your tracking sheets and look for patterns in your triggers, thoughts and/or feelings, and develop specific interventions for each scenario.
7. Creating a Distraction-Free Environment
GBT applies environmental stressors as motivators for behaviours, as the environment (in our case, it is a home) is likely to be a key contributor to your actions to procrastinate while your working demands dissipate.
Environmental Optimisation Strategies:
- Make a specific workspace for only focused work
- Use website-blocker applications when scheduled to complete work
- Establish a “do not disturb” protocol for the family/roommates when working from home
- Keep your workspace tidy and clutter-free
- Get rid of all unnecessary electronics or silence other electronics if they are needed for the task at hand
- Use noise-cancelling headphones or some background noise if beneficial
Implementation Tip: Develop a “starting ritual” which tells your brain it is focus time. Your ritual could be clearing the mess from your desk, filling your drinking bottle, setting a timer, and closing all non-work-related tabs in your browser.
8. Utilising Rewards and Self-Compassion
CBT acknowledges that we can develop new protective behaviours. We can also rely on rewards to change behavioural patterns that have developed over the years. The trick is to develop a reward system to get through the initial resistance to getting started. Here are some ideas for using rewards:
Effective Strategies:
- Small rewards, like a 5-minute break a brief walk, for completing subtasks
- Medium rewards (coffee with a friend) for completing massive milestones
- Large rewards (dinner out, movie) for completing overarching major projects
What is equally important as rewarding yourself is allowing yourself to use self-compassion when you find yourself in a place of getting off track. The mental chatter that flows through harsh self-criticism only continues the cycle of procrastination.
Self-compassion allows you the opportunity to think, to allow yourself to learn from your mistakes, or move on altogether. Keep in mind some ideas for using self-compassion:
Self-Compassion Practices:
- Recognise that procrastination is a common human behaviour
- Talk to yourself like you would your best friend
- Think of each occasion as a learning opportunity instead of a personal failure
- Awareness/Being mindful of your negative self-talk/critical thoughts without criticism or judgment
Implementation Tip💡: Write a “self-compassion script” for when you notice you are having critical thinking about your procrastination, which might include: “This is a moment of difficulty. A lot of people struggle with this. I can be kind to myself here.”
9. The 5-Minute Rule
The 5-Minute Rule works well for starting behaviour, because it creates a small commitment to work for five minutes on a task, then permits yourself to stop if you want.
Why it works:
- Lowers the psychological barrier to starting
- You don’t have to be motivated to start working
- Usually creates momentum that will go past the first five minutes
- Helps build the neural pathways related to starting a task
Implementation Tip: Visible timers can clear up ambiguity about exact time lengths. The small, precise time frame commits to do something and also provides constraints.
10. Mindfulness for Procrastination
Mindfulness practices can fit well with more cognitive-behavioural (CB) approaches because they help increase awareness around procrastination triggers and create space in time between the impulse and the behaviour.
Mindfulness Techniques for Procrastination:
- STOP procrastinating with CBT Practice: Stop, take a breath, observe your thoughts/feelings, proceed mindfully
- Urge surfing: Notice the urge to procrastinate without actually acting
- Body scan: Realisation of the physical feelings that are present when you procrastinate
- Three-minute breathing space: Quick meditation right before the difficult task
Implementation Tip: When you feel the urge to procrastinate, give the” S.T.O.P.” technique; try and see what happens if you do not immediately act on the impulse.
Creating Your Personalised CBT Plan for Procrastination
The best way to approach procrastination is to utilise multiple CBT strategies to work with your own unique patterns of procrastination. Here are some guidelines for constructing your personalised plan:
- Evaluate the type of your procrastination using the descriptions provided above
- Identify your primary causes of procrastination when you are ready to start your task through self-monitoring
- Choose 2 to 3 CBT strategies that fit with your unique patterns
- Develop a structured plan to implement the desired strategies to use CBT strategies, which includes specified actions
- Take note of your new actions and continue to monitor to modify these strategies as you decide
- The plan must also include self-compassion.
The Evidence: Does CBT Really Work for Procrastination?
The evidence is clear that CBT works to decrease procrastination. The evidence from studies includes:
- Evidence of significant reductions in levels of procrastination through internet intervening as well as group interventions using CBT;
- The ever-important meta-analysis suggests on a moderate effect size concerning treating procrastination and that CBT provides at least some reduction to help procrastination.
- Individual CBT and group CBT can both help with procrastination, with some evidence to suggest that group CBT offers greater long-term reduction for procrastination.
Overcoming Common Challenges
Even with effective strategies, you may encounter obstacles when implementing CBT for procrastination:
Conclusion: The Journey Beyond Procrastination
Overcoming procrastination, CBT isn’t about being perfectly productive overnight but about building a healthier relationship with tasks, time, and ourselves. The strategies we have discussed in this blog provide a guide for moving away from the hold of procrastination and embracing a more balanced and fulfilling way of approaching both work and life.
Everyone can change! Change takes time and consistency. Take smaller steps, be compassionate, and recognise that any step forward, no matter how small, is still progress. In time, with practice, the CBT strategies we identified, which feel more deliberate initially, become more automatic and create new neural pathways, making it easier and easier to start and complete tasks.
As you consider the cognitive, emotional, and behavioural aspects of procrastination, you will be forming a more empowered relationship with work and goals. The changes go far beyond becoming more productive, you will experience reduced stress, better self-efficacy, and a deeper sense of accomplishment in all areas of your life.
Which CBT strategy will you do first? Remember, a journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. Or maybe it is one five-minute commitment!
